The winter months are a busy time for birthdays in our family. While little one has her birthday around Christmas, both Dan and I are March babies and are actually separated by only a few days, well a few years and a few days, but the dates themselves are only a few days apart. We love that we’re so close and we can have one big celebration together but this year with our Disney vacation being right around that time, our birthdays kind of came and went without too much fuss. Disney was really our big celebration but we decided when we got home to have a small family get together to talk about Disney and do a little birthday dinner and cake for both of us.
So this past weekend, we got together at my parent’s house for my dad’s homemade pizza, yes he even makes gluten free for me!, and cakes too. Little one couldn’t have been happier to be reunited with her grandparents and some of her cousins, as evident by her running hugs to greet each and every one. She rarely gets to be around other kids especially during the winter months since we steer away from play places so it’s always a treat to play with her cousins who I hate to admit can be a little more fun for her than her mommy and daddy. After some playtime, we wrangled the kids up and settled in for some delicious homemade pizza. My dad’s pizzas are one of those prominent food memories that I mention from time to time. Most of a Sunday was spent prepping the dough and toppings and making tons and tons of pizzas for each of us, filling the house with that pizzeria aroma; keep in mind that at those times all of his pizzas were filled with gluten, so since then my dad has really gone out of his way to make any and all of his dishes gluten free when we’re there and the pizzas have been no exception. So after cutting up some pizza for little one, I settled in to enjoy my gluten free personal pie that was waiting for me.
The pizza was delicious as always but I can’t lie I couldn’t contain my excitement for my extra special gluten free birthday cake that was waiting for me in the kitchen. With the craziness of our Disney vacation I didn’t have time to bake our cakes this year so we went store bought all the way. Dan picked a delicious looking triple chocolate cake that seemed to get rave reviews from the rest of the family and I decided on this sprinkle, Confetti Cake by Whole Foods that I’ve been eyeing for probably a few years now, waiting for an excuse to try it. I’ve always loved Whole Foods gluten free treats in their bake shop so I figured it might be a safe gamble to splurge on the $12.99 layered cake for my birthday.
The gluten free masterpiece is two layers of vanilla cake with a vanilla meringue icing, all covered with my favorite type of sprinkle. It’s definitely big enough for a number of people to dive into but thankfully not too many of our diners stole any of my gluten free cake, except that is a kid or two who couldn’t stand the sprinkled appearance. So with a quick happy birthday to both Dan and I, we dove into our cakes and the table grew silent with everybody’s mouth full of sweets of all kinds. Okay while most of the table was enjoying the chocolate cake, our little girl included, myself and my non-gluten free nephew nibbled on gluten free sprinkle cake.
I have to say what captured me first with this cake was how pretty and delicious it looked from the outside, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that I was equally impressed with the inside of the cake too. Two moist and firm (not crumbly) layers of vanilla cake with generous helpings of the not too sweet icing was really a perfect combination. I’m not normally a huge cake person but this cake was a definite winner for me, especially since I finished my piece without a problem. Honestly, this was the first time I’ve bought a birthday cake for myself since going gluten free, so it was a real treat to be able to buy a beautiful and delicious cake rather than spend the day in the kitchen baking my own. I’ll definitely keep this one in mind for next year’s birthday or maybe a special event between now and then too!
After our Disney fun, this was the perfect way to celebrate our birthdays, especially watching our little girl run toe to toe with her three boy cousins. So as our birthday season comes to a close we can’t help but think of what next year’s birthdays will look like. It’s so exciting to know that this time next year we’ll two little girls to share in the celebration. It’s just amazing how quickly life changes and ours is certainly changing drastically very soon!
So here’s a Happy Birthday to my loving husband, you’re my absolute best friend and an amazing father to our little girl. I couldn’t have ever dreamed that my life would look this beautiful but I’m so lucky that it does, and that’s all thanks to you. Cheers to a fantastic birthday this year and many more to come! We love you!
Sincerely,
Lindsay (24 weeks)